It is no secret that AI for your home is becoming more and more popular as more tech giants enter the world of smart speakers. The list of things that you are able to accomplish with smart speakers is already very long, and that list keeps growing. You can integrate your smart speaker into almost any part of your life.

Amazon, the early pioneer of smart speakers, offers many Echo products that do a wide variety of tasks. These include smart speakers; Echo for your car; Echo Frames, eyeglasses with Alexa; Echo Loop, a smart ring with Alexa; and countless Alexa-compatible devices like plug-ins; light bulbs; surveillance cameras; Fire TV Stick, a device to give your TV smart capabilities; thermostats; smartphones and countless others.

Echo’s features can help you make it through your day with it’s many features. Its features could potentially encompass many areas of your life including communication and entertainment. It enables you to have a smart home, helps you shop, be productive and more.

Communication

Echo enables you to communicate with any room in your house through Alexa. You can “Drop In” to open an instant 2-way conversation with someone in a different room than you, and make announcements across all of your Echo devices. You can even call or send messages to anyone. If someone you know has an Echo device too, you can call them over their Echo and even make video calls to people with an Echo Show.

Entertainment

If you can’t get a song out of your head, why not listen to it? If you’re cooking, cleaning, or maybe just lounging, you can tell Alexa to play it. You don’t have to have a dance party alone though. Ask Alexa to play everywhere and all of your Echo devices throughout your house can play the same song. You can also tell Alexa to play a specific podcast you have been listening to, or read you a book from Audible or Kindle. For the TV show and movie lover, you can ask Alexa to launch your favorite streaming service and play a movie. If you’re alone and need someone to talk to, try out Alexa. You can have her tell you a joke or you can play a game with her.

Smart Home

You can have Echo with Alexa control anything in your home from your heating and air conditioning, cameras, lights, doors, coffee maker, or maybe a Christmas tree this holiday season.

You’re able to dim or change the color of the lighting in your home with smart bulbs or turn on/off lights, your Christmas tree, TV, coffee maker, or just about anything you plug in with smart plug-ins. You can also use smart switches to control lights in your room, but these take a little more time installing.

You can tell Alexa to show you a live stream from one of your (Alexa-enabled) cameras on your TV with a Fire TV stick installed, or over your Echo Show device.

Alexa is able to be programmed with your regular routines. For example, if you’re leaving the house for the day, you could program Alexa to shut off your music, coffee maker, and lights by saying something like, “Alexa, I’m leaving.” Similarly, you could program Alexa to turn on your Christmas tree lights, holiday decorations, and play holiday music when you say something like, “Alexa, make it festive.”

Productivity

Your productivity can be increased with an Echo device. As aforementioned, you can program Alexa to do tasks and routines for you. This can make it quicker for you to get ready in the morning, leave the house, or make supper. You can link your email and calendar and ask Alexa to check your emails, show your events for the day, set an alarm for you to wake up, a timer to remember to switch the laundry, or make a calendar event to meet a friend for lunch on Saturday.

You can also make lists on Alexa such as a shopping list, to-do list, or you can create your own. Items can be added to your lists using your voice, then you can view/delete items on your phone in the Alexa app. This is handy to keep track of what you need to pick up at the store. You don’t need to remember to bring your grocery list with you to the store because you can see it on your phone.

Shopping

Of course, Alexa makes it easy to spend money on Amazon. When you’re running low on essentials like toilet paper, paper towels or dog food, you can just tell Alexa to re-order what you have purchased in the past. If you haven’t ordered the specific product in the past, you can tell Alexa to search for what you need and she will give you options. After you place an order on Amazon, Alexa can tell you where your packages are or if they have been delivered.

More

With skills, you can personalize what your Echo device can do. Skills are like apps for your Echo device. You can get skills on your Echo like Jeopardy, or Harry Potter Trivia, rain sounds, or your favorite news station. Skills make your Echo device unique to you.

There are many smart devices that can work together to make your home smart and allow you to do a number of things just by using your voice. When purchasing smart devices, it’s important to consider your options. Amazon offers many options, there are also other options from Google and Apple and other technology companies. With smart devices, you need to choose a “team.” If you are going to get an Amazon Echo, I’d recommend that you have all of your other products also be Amazon Echos, and not Google, for example. Smart devices work better together when they are connected with each other and can communicate.

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Smart home devices can be useful in your every day life. With a smart speaker, you are able to do all the things mentioned in this article, and even more. Smart speakers are truly customizable to fit your individual needs. Your smart home is yours to customize and build just the way you like.

New laptops can make all the difference in the productiveness of employees. Sleek, modern laptops inspire productivity as they are enjoyable to use and have many features that make collaboration a breeze. Smarter interactions result in a more positive employee experience, and this is translated to your customers. Our sales managers can help you find the laptop that fits your computing needs. Listed below are some of our most commonly sold models.

Lenovo Models

Lenovo Think Pad T590

Size:	15 inches
OS:	Windows 10 Pro
Keyboard:	Numeric keypad and backlit keyboard*
Features:	Rapid Charge, ThinkShutter, Touch Fingerprint Reader Login
Touchscreen:	Optional
Dimensions:	14.4″ x 9.76″ x 0.75″
Weight:	Starting at 3.87 pounds

*backlit keyboard available on touchscreen version only

Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Laptop

Size:	14 inches
OS:	Windows 10 Pro
Keyboard:	Backlit keyboard on some models*
Features:	Touch Fingerprint Reader integrated with power button, wide-angle viewing, physical camera cover
Touchscreen:	No.
Dimensions:	12.7″ x 8.77″ x 0.65″
Weight:	Starting at 3.35 pounds

*backlit keyboard not available on standard model

Lenovo ThinkPad P53

Size:	15 inches
OS:	Windows 10 Pro
Keyboard:	Backlit keyboard and Numeric keypad
Features:	ISV certification from all the major vendors, ThinkShield, ThinkShutter, Fingerprint Reader
Touchscreen	Optional
Dimensions:	14.9″ x 10″ x 0.96″
Weight:	Starting at 5.51 pounds

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga

Size:	14 inches
OS:	Windows 10 Pro
Keyboard:	Backlit keyboard
Features:	2-in-1 laptop with 360° hinge, Rapid Charge, ThinkPad Pen Pro, PrivacyGuard, PrivacyAlert, ThinkShutter, ThinkShield
Touchscreen:	Yes
Dimensions:	12″ x 8.5″ x 0.59″
Weight:	Starting at 2.99 pounds

Descriptions of Lenovo Features

ThinkShield:	A combination of hardware and software that work together to ensure what’s on your display is for your eyes only.
Rapid Charge:	Charge battery up to 80% in just 60 minutes and keep moving.
PrivacyGuard:	Electronic privacy filter built into your system that decreases the angle of vision on your display so only you are able to view it.
PrivacyAlert:	An integrated software that works with the IR camera to ensure that if others look over your shoulder, a pop-up notifies you of the potential threat.
ThinkShutter:	A physical camera cover which blocks the lens to ensure that you’re only seen when you want to be.
ThinkPad Pen Pro:	This pen is stored in the ThinkPad X1 Yoga in a dedicated pen slot where it will recharge when it is stored. Once charged, it will give the user 130 minutes of active use.

Lenovo: Setting a High Standard

Lenovo performs Mil-SPEC testing on all of their devices. Mil-SPEC is a set of standards designed to test durability, ruggedness, and reliability. These tests cover extreme environmental variables including temperature, pressure, dust, humidity and vibration testing.

Lenovo exceeds these standards in all ThinkPad models, including all X & T series. These devices have successfully passed and exceeded Mil-SPEC standard tests.

Humidity:	91-98%
Low Temperature:	Storage at -13°F for 24 hours Operation at -6°F for 8 hours
High Temperature:	Storage at 145.4°F for 24 hours Operation at 109.4°F for 8 hours
Sand & Dust Test:	140 mesh silica dust for 6 hour cycles and silica sand for 90 minute cycles
High Vibration:	Tested while running and turned off
Mechanical Shock:	High acceleration and repeated shock pulses over 18 times
High Altitude:	Tests operation at 15,000 feet while running
Temperature Shock:	Performs in temperatures oscillating between -13°F and 140°F over 3 cycles of 2 hour duration
Solar Radiation:	Simulated UV radiation over 7 x 24 hour cycles
Fungus:	28 days with common fungus sources

Other Popular Models

Windows Surface Pro 7

Size:	12.3 inches
OS:	Windows 10 Pro
Keyboard:	Backlit keyboard*
Features:	Write and draw naturally on screen with Surface Pen. Transforms from tablet to laptop with built-in Kickstand and removable Type Cover**
Touchscreen:	Yes
Dimensions:	11.5″ x 7.9″ x 0.33″
Weight:	Starting at 1.70 pounds***

*Surface Pro Signature Type Cover includes backlit keys

**Type cover sold separately

***Does not include weight of Type Cover

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Contact the sales department at ITS today to place your request for an order, or speak to one of our sales managers if you would like help deciding the best laptop to fit your needs.

For most of us, the period of time just before the holidays is a popular time of year for payments to be made by swiping our plastic cards. Most likely, this is because there are a lot of transactions happening as you scramble to find the perfect gift for everyone on your list.

Credit/debit cards make your funds easily accessible. The convenience of having a plastic card linked to all the money in your account is nice, however, that convenience for you is enticing bait for criminals. All a criminal needs to be able to spend your money is your PIN and the data contained in your card’s magnetic stripe. These things can be stolen with help from skimmers. It is important to be aware of and know how to spot skimmers so you are less likely to become a victim of fraud.

How do plastic cards work?

In order to understand how skimmers work, it is important to first know how your plastic card works. The magnetic stripe (or magstripe) on the back of your plastic card is comprised of a plastic-like film with tiny iron-based magnetic particles in it. Each particle is really a bar magnet about 20 millionths of an inch long. These bar magnets can be magnetized to north or south pole directions, so as to “write” the magnetic stripe. The magstripe contains all the information a thief needs to make fraudulent transactions with your debit or credit card; your credit card number and expiration date, and the card holder’s full name.

How do skimmers work?

Every time you swipe your card, the card reader on a point of sale terminal or ATM collects all the information that is stored on your card and uses it to process the payment. A criminal can disguise a skimmer on the machine with the hopes that an innocent user will not recognize that the machine has been tampered with. Their transaction will be able to go through as normal. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to them, a malicious second card-reading device also collected their data when they swiped their card.

Skimmers can either collect and store victim’s information locally on a memory card, or more likely today, connect via bluetooth to the criminal’s nearby device to store victim information. This way, the criminal doesn’t need to risk being caught retrieving information from the machine.

Signs to look for: If a part on the machine doesn’t look normal or you notice a loose part, it could be a skimmer. If you pull out your phone and notice a bluetooth device named by a string of letters and numbers as an option to connect to, it could be a skimmer, and the criminal’s device could also be nearby.

Where are skimmers usually found?

Skimmers are most often found at gas station pumps. The main reason for this is that there is not very much (if any) supervision of the pump card readers. Often, the pumps may even be facing the opposite direction of the employees inside the store of the gas station, so it is almost impossible to supervise these areas.

Skimmers can also be found at ATMs where cardholders use their debit card to withdraw money, make deposits, and/or check their balance(s). At these machines, it is also common to find a camera or overlay keypad that works with the skimmer. The purpose of the camera or keypad would be to collect corresponding PINs to the credit/debit card numbers the skimmer is collecting.

Point-of-sale (POS) terminals can also be infected with skimmers. Unless you know what you are looking for, these skimmers can be hard to spot. Thankfully, skimmers are less commonly found on these machines because there is a higher risk of being caught since the store attendant is usually nearby.

Ingenico POS terminals are commonly found at Walmart self checkout lanes. A skimmer on these devices can be installed in the blink of an eye. You’ll notice the device with a skimmer placed over it (left) has a wider border than the device without the skimmer (right). This is because in order for the overlay to fit atop the POS terminal, it must be physically larger.

Signs to look for: If you are familiar with the look of these machines and notice a wider-than-normal border around the screen and keypad area, you may want to further inspect if there is a skimmer installed. This specific model (shown above) also has a backlit keyboard. When a skimmer is installed, the backlighting is not visible. Another sign of a skimmer is that the stylus may no longer fit in its designated tray. This is due to the skimmer overlay fitting largely.

Types of Skimmers

There are many types of skimmers; skimmers that wrap around the existing card reader/acceptance slot (external skimmers), skimmers that can be inserted in the slot itself (internal skimmers), and skimmers that can be hooked up to the internal wiring of a gas station pump. There are many more, but the most common skimmers are external and insert skimmers.

External Skimmers

External skimmers usually sit on top of the existing card acceptance slot. These are meant to look very similar to the card reader on the machine in hopes that it goes unnoticed. This skimmer, which was found on a bank ATM, looks very sophisticated and well made. Most of the components of the skimmer are hidden behind the flap below the card acceptance slot.

Looking at the back of the device, you’ll notice all of the electronics that make it work. The device even features a small camera to record the PIN numbers of individuals who use the machine.

Signs to look for: larger than normal card acceptance device that is loose or wiggly. Also look for signs/stickers that were not there before, such as instruction labels and signs. The skimmer pictured above features an instructional sign whose purpose is to hide part of the device.

Insert Skimmers

“Insert skimmers” work just as you might imagine them to work by their name. These are found in the ATMs/card readers where you insert your plastic card for the duration of the transaction. The criminal installing the skimmer must use a special tool to install, then use another special tool to remove it.

Brian Krebs, author of KrebsOnSecurity, wrote about insert skimmers on his blog. He shared a video that he acquired from an insert skimmer peddler. This video shows how an insert skimmer works and the small size of the skimmer. You can imagine how well it could stay hidden and remain undetected; all while picking up credit card information from countless fraud victims.

Signs to look for: These skimmers can be hard to detect, as there is no visible part to be seen. One sign is that your card may stick or grab at some point when you slide the card in and/or out. However, keep in mind that when an insert skimmer is properly installed, the goal is to make it not stick.

Precautions to take

1. Before swiping your card in a machine, make sure it is in a well-lit, busy area. Criminals are more likely to install skimmers on/in machines where they feel as though they can’t be seen. So if you are thinking about using a gas station ATM located in a secluded, dark spot, it’s best to skip it and find a different ATM.
2. Regularly and strenuously monitor your bank transactions. If you notice something strange, it is a good idea to visit or call your bank. They may be able to tell you if there has been a wave of suspect transactions happening. To help catch something that may be awry, you can also keep a disciplined log of your income and expenditures and balance your checkbook.
3. Make it a habit to analyze each machine you put your card into. Check for loose parts/parts that don’t fit, cameras, abnormal signs and stickers (on ATMs), an overlay on POS terminal that makes it seem bigger, and stylus tray that no longer fits the stylus.

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The time around the holidays is a busy time for all of us. Most likely, credit/debit cards will be used to make many purchases. In these next few months, make sure you take precautions before you swipe your debit and credit cards. After all, it could save you time, stress, and money.

It looks like we are getting an early start to winter this year as it is not too often that we see snow on Halloween morning. Here in Monticello we got over 5 inches of snow last Wednesday night into Thursday morning.

This provides the perfect reminder to check your winter preparedness plan for power/internet outages, stranded employees and holiday shopping!

Data Access:

Can your employees access company data securely if they are snowed-in or traveling?

• Review offsite data access procedures for staff.  Are they using a VPN or Remote Desktop? Check: data/connection security, client application update, password still works, staff remembers offsite access protocol.
• Consider cloud-hosted apps through a secure management platform, like Citrix Hosted Desktop with ITS.  All of your apps and data are accessed via a secure cloud connection, to only your users; available on a multitude of devices.

Email:

If your physical office loses power or internet, do you also lose access to email?

• Consider cloud-hosted email instead of an on-premise Exchange Server, to provide maximum uptime.
• Develop a plan for accessing and delegating email of other staff if necessary during winter travel.

UPS/Battery Backup:

UPS units save networks from costly equipment replacements and downtime:

• Protect network equipment and servers from power surges by plugging them into a UPS unit.
• Select and setup your UPS to allow enough battery power to shut down network gear and servers in the event of an extended power failure.
• Determine proper boot order for equipment after power resumes, and determine what checks should take place to make sure equipment is working.
• Name staff in charge of powering down gear when on battery power and re-booting after power resumes.
• Check the load and battery function on your UPS quarterly.

Disaster Preparedness:

Human error is the number one cause of network breeches.

• If your employees will be online shopping, consider whether you have trained staff on how to avoid clicking on fake updates, bad links, etc., that can invite viruses and ransomware into your network.
• Make sure you have a solid, ongoing backup of your business-critical files.  If you are infected with a virus or ransomware, restoring to your most-current backup is usually your best option.
• Train staff on how to look for file changes and system alerts that can signal a virus or ransomware infection, and teach them how to react to mitigate damage.
• While we are on the staff-training topic, consider addressing browser hijacks (how to avoid, and how to recover), scam calls asking for permission to remote into machines or servers, and phishing emails that ask you to enter credentials or personal information.

Easily Work From Home:

Even employees who are stranded at home can get work done with Unified Communications (UC). UC is a way to improve mobility, effectively communicate, and collaborate with colleagues and customers. Unified Communications is available through 3CX‘s IP phone system. Mobility is important when travel is not manageable. With IP phones, you can pick up calls that come in on your office phone on your cell phone, tablet, or computer. You can also view presence and availability of colleagues, chat, and transfer calls. With this capability, offsite work becomes more possible.

New Devices:

And, ’tis also the season for new devices!  Do you have a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy?

• Can your firewall limit access to company files for only company devices, and deliver guest internet access for staff phones and guest users?
• Can your network hardware shape network traffic, and give maximum bandwidth to company devices and important websites, and limit bandwidth for guest devices or non-important websites?
• Does your firewall provide a quick glance at network stats – which websites are visited the most frequently or which devices are consuming the most bandwidth?
• Learn more about our firewalls and network hardware.

ITS specializes in helpdesk services; we provide Managed IT Services for businesses without dedicated IT staff, and work with existing IT staff to provide coverage beyond existing time and training allocations.  Contact ITS to learn more about any of our IT services.